Sreesanth to remain in custody for 5 days

Arrested Indian pacer S Sreesanth along with two other cricketers of the Rajasthan franchise and a large number of bookies, were today (May 16) sent to police custody for five days by a court for being quizzed in connection with the Indian T20 League spot-fixing scandal case.Delhi police told the court that more persons are involved and fresh arrests are expected. The probe suggested that bookies had bet on some other players too, it said.

On a day of dramatic developments, Sreesanth and his teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, who were arrested in Mumbai earlier in the day, were brought to the Saket district court complex here with their faces muffled along with 11 Mumbai and Delhi based bookies.They were produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma at his residence inside the Saket court complex and were asked to appear one-by-one before him.

Media was barred from entering the magistrate's residence which was under a thick security blanket.During the hearing, special cell of the Delhi police sought seven days of custodial interrogation of the cricketers and the others to unearth the entire conspiracy relating to spot-fixing in three Indian T20 League matches involving Rajasthan.

Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan, appearing for Delhi police, sought custody of all the accused. The Delhi police, while arresting the accused, had found several electronic evidence, including their laptops, during the discreet probe.The custodial interrogation was required to ascertain, if any, the magnitude of conspiracy, Mohan said adding that the investigators also need to find out the source of money allegedly received by the cricketers for indulging in spot fixing.

During the arguments, the prosecutor claimed that several other matches in the League were also fixed and the accused are required to be interrogated regarding that too.

"Huge amount money is involved in the case," Mohan said. Seeking seven days remand of all accused, the prosecutor told the court that that there was a "larger conspiracy" in the entire scandal and they need to be probed thoroughly. The counsel appearing for some of the accused opposed the police plea alleging they were innocent and have been falsely implicated in the case.

The defence counsel alleged foul play and claimed that some other persons were behind the conspiracy. Sreesanth and two other cricketers were arrested in a post-midnight operation in Mumbai last night by Delhi police for spot-fixing and had received payments of upto Rs 60 lakhs just for giving away pre-determined number of runs in an over. It said that the cricketers indulged in spot-fixing in at least three matches as per arrangements with bookies who have underworld connections abroad.

The players, who have been suspended by the BCCI, have been booked under section 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.Advocate Rajiv Shankar Trivedi, appearing for Chavan and Chandila, claimed his clients were innocent.

"The prosecution has shown some evidence. They have claimed they have recovered various mobile phones, laptops, etc from their possession. They have also claimed that money changed hands. We are not seeing any such thing," the lawyer said.

"The names of players emerged during the conversations between two bookies and on this basis, the cricketers were implicated in the case," he said.